The present invention generally relates to a motor vehicle and more particularly, to a lever switch for use in a motor vehicle which is capable of controlling the functions of a plurality of switching members, for example, for windshield wipers, windshield washers, horns, dimmer and passing signals, direction indicators, etc. as desired by operation of a single lever.
Recently, motor vehicles equipped with wipers on the rear windshields as well as the front windshields have been introduced, and in such motor vehicles, it has been a conventional arrangement that wiper switches are individually provided for the front and rear windshield wipers or a knob having a rear windshield wiper switch incorporated therein is mounted at a forward end of a control lever for a front windshield wiper switch so as to actuate the front windshield wipers by rotation of the control lever itself and also to actuate the rear windshield wipers by rotation of the knob. The known arrangement as described above tends to require many parts since the wiper switches for the rear and front windshield wipers are independent of each other. More specifically, in the former, operation in troublesome since the operating portions of the two wiper switches are spaced apart, while in the latter, the knob tends to be large in size, involving complicated procedures in the manufacture, although the lever and knob can be operated from one position.
Similarly, in motor vehicles in general, it has been a common practice to provide a pushbutton for a horn switch at the central portion of a steering wheel or close to a gripping portion of the steering wheel.
The conventional arrangement as described above, however, has such disadvantages that in the former, the operability is impaired, for example, in that the pushbutton can not be operated when the steering wheel is gripped, while in the latter, it becomes rather difficult to effect a horn sounding operation since the pushbutton is moved along with the rotation of the steering wheel, thus presenting a serious problem related to safety in the driving of the motor vehicle. In order to overcome the disadvantages as described above, there has conventionally been proposed an arrangement in which the horn switch and the pushbutton therefor are provided at a forward end portion, for example, of a turn signal lever disposed in the vicinity of the steering wheel. However, the above known arrangement is also disadvantageous in that, since lead wires from the horn switch must be passed through the hollow interior of the above lever which is in a pipe-like shape, the assembly thereof is complicated causing a consequent increase in the manufacturing cost, while reliability tends to be reduced, for example, due to possible damages to the covering of the lead wires.